“Platform-as-a-Service” (also commonly referred to as “PaaS”) generally describes a suite of technologies provided by a service provider as an integrated solution that enables a web developer (or any other application developer) to build, deploy and manage the life cycle of a web application (or any other type of networked application). One primary component of PaaS is a “cloud-computing platform” which is a network (e.g., Internet, etc.) infrastructure run and maintained by the service provider upon which developed web applications may be deployed. By providing the hardware resources and software layers required to robustly run a web application, the cloud computing platform enables developers to focus on the development of the web application, itself, and leave the logistics of scalability and other computing and storage resource requirements (e.g., data storage, database access, processing power, facilities, power and bandwidth, etc.) to the cloud computing platform (e.g., at a cost charged by the service provider). A service provider may additionally provide a plug-in component to a traditional IDE (i.e., integrated development environment) that assists a developer who creates web applications using the IDE to properly structure, develop and test such applications in a manner that is compatible with the service provider's cloud computing platform. Once the developer completes a web application using the IDE, the plug-in component assists the developer in deploying the web application into the cloud computing platform.
However, due to complexities in providing flexible and scalable cloud computing platforms, PaaS is offered by few service providers. Current implementations of cloud computing platforms use multiple components (e.g., cloud controller, health manager, service provisioner, router, and application execution agents) that perform different roles and coordinate amongst each other to provide cloud computing services. To deploy such a cloud computing platform, a system administrator must build, configure, deploy, and maintain each of the components (e.g., cloud controller, health manager, service provisioner, router, and application execution agents). While deployment may be performed manually when installing all components on a single system (e.g., laptop, server), the deployment process becomes challenging when the components are installed across a plurality of networked systems because, in such installations, each system must be provisioned with specific computing resources, set up with a particular networking configuration, and have a different software application installed with dependent libraries and/or runtimes to perform the system's assigned role within the cloud computing platform. Additionally, updating any of the components (e.g., security patch for a library or operating system) requires a system administrator to have to modify operations for other components in the cloud computing platform. For example, when one of the components needs to be updated, a system administrator may have to suspend operations of other components currently connected to the component, or, in another example, update settings of other components to correctly connect to the updated component. Accordingly, the deployment process for a multi-node application such as a cloud computing platform may be too complex and time-consuming for a system administrator to manage.